Even in Dicken’s day, he would take notice of the criticism of the prior installments and use it to his advantage…We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards. When (competitors) are in the shower in the morning, they’re thinking about how they’re going to get ahead of one of their top competitors. Here in the shower, we’re thinking about how we are going to invent something on behalf of a customer.

Cost cutting in operations: salaries and perks are lower relative to expectations set by the Silicon Valley smart set. Second highest salary is $165K, Bezos himself getting $82K (of course $19 billion in founder’s shares makes that bearable). Carrots are in restricted stock rather than incentive pay and being part of a team building Big Things.

Sci-Fi Fan: because of course he is. Wonder if he’s read Cory Doctorow’s “Makers” – some of the themes in it are the inevitable race to the bottom in margins / competition and how 3D printing could eliminate barriers to reproducing physical products.